Do you tend to go for the cake or the icing? It says a lot about you, if you think about it. Anyone who has made a cake knows that most of the preparation and baking goes into making the cake and not the icing. The reason being that the cake is the foundation. It is what you put the icing on so a lot goes into the making of the cake. In our lives, the “cake” would be our relationships with our God, our family, our friends and maybe even our co-workers and neighbors. After the cake is made, the chef or baker turns their attention to making the icing, which is usually a quick process. While the icing is not an afterthought, neither does it garner as much time and attention as the cake. When I think of icing, I think of the things in life that make the cake better like a significant other, financial prosperity, the privilege of leisure and material possessions whether it’s a closet full of the latest trends, a nice car, or a spacious house in a sought after neighborhood. All of these things are fine and dandy and make life more fun, but if we don’t have quality relationships with our family and friends are we really going to be able to enjoy the nice car and the nice house and the ability to travel whenever and wherever we want? Trust me on this: there’s nothing worse than finding yourself in paradise and not having a soul to share it with. And I’m not the only one who feels this way. Just ask all the millionaires shooting up and smoking their lives away to numb the pain of having every material possession possible all the while knowing that even their closest “friends” have more interest in their death than in their life. We are all naturally one type or the other. We are either busy eating the cake or we are busy eating the icing. When you look at your life, where is the majority of your time and money spent? Are you focusing all your energy on the cake or on the icing? Does your paradise consist of the things you own or are the people in your life, your paradise? I’ve had a lot and I’ve had a little plenty a time in my life, but the only time I was ever truly saddened was when I was without my closest friends and family. As it turns out, things are interchangeable; people are not.